bwojdyla

During the formative years of ages six through eleven, this Jalop lived a short bike ride from one of Evel Knievel's most spectacular failures (aside from the bone-crushing incident outside Caesar's Palace). That is, his 1974 attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. Evel, the "paintron" saint of hoonage, hired an ex-NASA engineer to design and build what came to be called the X-2 Skycycle, a steam-powered missile that happened to have two wheels. With this batshit contraption he planned to jump a section of the holy-crap-that's-really-deep gorge and live to tell about it. Unfortunately fate had a different idea and the drogue chute opened at liftoff, sending the cycle crashing into the rocky walls of the canyon. Now that the awesome history lesson is covered, it's time to pony up about $5 million to buy the leftovers (sweet, Mulally will take two!). The Evel Knievel Daredevil and Harley Davidson Museum of Niagara Falls somehow managed to get their sneaky Canadian mitts on it, and is now auctioning it — and the Knievel Exhibit — for a huge profit. Better call all of your oil baron friends quick, the auction ends Tuesday evening. – Ben Wojdyla